Uncategorized

  The future of higher education, and universities in particular, faces substantial challenges.  In the United Kingdom, about fifty (50) universities face the risk of closure in the next few years, and half are on the brink of insolvency.  In the United States, the picture is even bleaker.  Between the Global Recession (2008) and the immediate post-COVID era […]

Jamaica has had, what I would describe as, an unsteady and equivocal relationship with the Integrity Commission and more broadly the fight against public corruption.  I describe this relationship as unsteady for four reasons: Despite Jamaica’s consistent low ranking on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the fact that 80% of citizens see corruption as a major

A former Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president called me recently. He, like other former presidents, had done study tours of education systems in other countries and he had a burning question which he wanted to discuss.  He had visited Singapore recently and was reflecting on the differences between Singapore and Jamaica specifically their economy and education

One of the most sacred doctrines (in my view) in public administrative law is the doctrine of reasonableness.  (The doctrine is also applicable to criminal law, but my exposure is to administrative law).  This doctrine holds that in the exercise of power, decision makers cannot be arbitrary, capricious, high-handed, or irrational, and that in arriving at any decision

Jamaica has been experiencing an unprecedented and welcome decline in its murders in the last two years, with a decline of 22% in 2024 compared to 2023, and a doubling of that percentage point decline in 2025 over 2024, of 43%.  The reported homicides for 2025 of 673 is the lowest in thirty years.  The police and

In an August 2023 article on this site, titled “Making sense of Jamaica’s lowering unemployment rate”, I noted that while unemployment was at a (then) historic low, at 4.5%, the poverty rates had increased by over 50% in the three-year period from 2019 to 2021, moving from 11% in 2019 to 16.7% in 2021.  The point

I write to draw urgent attention to a structural transformation quietly reshaping housing markets across the developing world — one that Jamaica must confront before its consequences become irreversible. For generations, the fundamental logic of housing was simple: a developer builds, a family buys, and the price is anchored to what working people can reasonably

Teachers across Jamaican classrooms demonstrate remarkable commitment to plan lessons, manage behaviour, cover curricula, and prepare students for assessments. Yet, a critical instructional distinction deserves reflection: a classroom may appear orderly, busy, and engaged while meaningful learning remains cognitively shallow. Activity is visible. Depth of learning is not.  A classroom may appear orderly, busy, and engaged while meaningful

In a few weeks’ time, it will be four months since Hurricane Melissa wrought untold and unprecedented devastation on the south and west of Jamaica.  I have had the painful exposure to  some of the horrific destruction, first hand.  The latest of which was on February 7, 2026, when the Philosophy of Education Movement of the Caribbean (PEMCA)

& Patricia Scarlett-Forrester Hurricane Melissa, which hit Jamaica on Tuesday, October 28, 2025 as a Category 5 storm, was a large-scale disaster that had  strong emotional effects on those who experienced it, and even for individuals not directly affected. The scope of devastation and loss of lives is very disturbing and hard to comprehend, therefore students,